Part 2 features about breakfast, photo shooting around Ipoh Old Town and lunch. Let’s see what’s our agenda for the day…

Agreed to meet with Jian and Durianberry at 7.00am the next day (4th May) for breakfast at Foh San dim sum but again, I OVERSLEPT! I set the alarm on my phone, went to bed and someone turn if off after I was asleep. The result: I woke up at 9.00am, scolding everyone for turning off my phone (don’t care who was the culprit), make a frantic call to Jian (more like an apologise call) and running around to wash my face, shower and get changed.

So, there goes my dim sum breakfast… *sob sob*
But my brain instantly thought of something else to compensate my dim sum crave (hohoho). Picked the girls from Lai Kee Soyabean Milk & Tau Foo Far which is nearby Foh San and drove to Ipoh Old Town. We parked the car nearby this restaurant which was established in 1995…

Hoong Tho Restaurant, gave the girls some sort of nostalgic feeling. If you want to have nice and authentic fish balls made from ikan parang, this is the place to get them. They do have other stuff too…

Behold, the hidden gem… Lenggong’s very own cili padi sauce! My first encounter with this babe was few months back where my dad bought them during his trip to Lenggong and my whole family were hooked on it since (kick aside the poor Kg. Koh chilli sauce, lol). Durianberry bought 1 bottle of it.

Sun Yoon Loong, Sun Yuan Foong and opposite them, Nam Heong… all claimed to serve the original Ipoh Old Town White Coffee. Our target for the day – Sun Yuan Foong!

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Painting of the two shops… Look so alike. Alright, bring the food on, I’m hungry!

Of course we wouldn’t want to miss the famous Ipoh Old Town White Coffee. Tastes slightly bitter and sweet at the same time, with nice coffee aroma. Just nice.

The girls were stuffed with their dim sum so I ordered one set of toasts with half-boiled eggs. Look at those luscious, pretty yet cholesterol inducing egg yolks…! Dash some pepper and soy sauce, take it up high and bite it…. Ooooo…. Oh, must close the eyes for better effect… wahahaha….

It’s still early for lunch, so I decided to bring them to some attractions. First stop, Sam Poh Tong (Sam Poh Cave).

The tall and huge marble arch greeting the visitors. The compound is very quiet and we didn’t see any other visitors probably because it’s not holiday season. This place will be overcrowded during Cheng Meng (Soul’s Day) where people came to pray for their departed ones. There’s an auntie at the main gate selling kangkung to feed the tortoise.

This way to tortoise pond.

Twilight Zone?

Tortoise pond, finally. This group of visitors actually climbed onto the fence for better view… See the women too?

Different sizes of this reptile were cramped together into one pond. Poor wu guai…

This one actually came very close to me and not afraid of people. Should have buy the kangkung to feed them.

Back to the temple compound with a man-made pond and garden.

Replicas on the floating islands, as if it’s a scene from those old Chinese martial arts movies.

Shaolin temple?

There’s a Buddha statue at the top.

We explored the garden and took some pictures before we move to another temple which is nearby, Lin Seng Tong (Ling Seng Cave). For your information, Sam Poh Tong, Lin Seng Tong and Nan Tian Tong were located at the same area, you could just walk from one temple to another.

Kedai Kopi Sun Yuan Foong
Jalan Bandar Timah,
Ipoh, Perak.
(If you’re coming from city centre, take the second junction on your left after crossing the Kinta River. Sun Yuan Foong is at the far end of the street, on your right.)

The girls arrive on 3rd May afternoon and went for some “jalan jalan” (walking) session on their own. I picked the girls at McDonalds at night and thus, began our food hunting for the night!

** Ipoh Food Hunt: 3rd May, Tong Sui Kai (Dessert Street) **
Upon our arrival, we were a bit disappointed cos the lower part of the stalls were closed. Nevertheless, I parked my car, got down, walked for some short distance while browsing through the stalls and before long, they say they wanna eat beef noodle.

First stop… Forgotten the stall number. It’s next to the stall selling “lolo” (closed as well). And the uncle who runs the stall has a pretty sad looking face…

Honestly, I have no idea what are in the bowl except for the hor fun (flat rice noodle) as I don’t (really) eat beef. The girls shared one bowl among themselves. Their comments: The soup is sweet but somehow tastes funny. The beef were NOT tender enough. (correction made by Jian)

We moved on to another stall for another round of beef noodle! Stall Cheong Kee, No. 47.

As usual, the hor fun.

The beef came but beef pork balls were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, the pork balls are not given together with the noodle, it have to be ordered separately and it costs RM0.40 per piece. (Picture taken after the pork balls were added in). I think they prefer the this one. (According to Jian, the beef parts were really succulent and tender, so thumbs up!)

Jian was super happy while she’s stirring her “ching po leong”, she found an hard-boiled quail egg! According to her, it’s almost impossible to find that with “ching po leong” in Penang.

After 2 bowls of beef noodle, the girls wanna go for something else! Guess that floggers do have a same characteristic: Glutton! And while we’re walking to the other end of the street… we spotted something exotic… “ubi bakar” (roast sweet potatoes) and meat dumplings on the wheel!

We’re just standing there taking photos… No intention to try them as we wanna save some space in our stomach for something else. Can you see the piles of sweet potatoes?

** Ipoh Food Hunt: 3rd May, Man U Food Court **
Someone must be really in love with Manchester United until he/she named this food court Man U. As a Man U supporter, Durianberry can’t resist to take a shot at the main entrance which is just opposite Tong Sui Kai… LOL.

Once you sat down, 2 workers from 2 different stalls will approach you. One is from the usual drink counter while another one with laminated menu is from the dessert counter. You can choose which one you like, no obligation.

Jian and Durianberry shared a bowl of ais kacang, topped with ice cream! But I would prefer the ice shavings to be higher :P

Since they ordered the ais kacang, I try their Mango Tango. Ice shavings, topped with plenty of mango cubes and mango puree but the mangoes somehow were not sweet enough for my tastebuds.

Also ordered the egg skin popiah and glad that they like it. They told me that Penang popiah tend to break loose once you pick them up with chopsticks but this one is wrapped tightly enough and still bursting with ingredients.

While eating, we planned for tomorrow’s outing… Like breakfast at Foh San, shopping for “heong peah”, salt baked chicken etc. But something happened and I missed the “dim sum”! *soooooobb*

I was tagged by “kah jie” WMW on describing one of my favourite food few days ago. I usually just know how to eat, what to eat and where to eat but now that you ask me “What’s my favourite food?”, I’ll be like “Errr…. wait a minute” or “Darn, lemme think about it”!

When I was in primary school, I used to went for tuition classes in town at night. My mom’s ex-boss (I just call her Auntie) will come and pick me after my class ended at 10pm, as her house is nearby to my tuition centre. Sometimes, she’ll bring me to Tong Sui Kai for dessert before my dad come to her house to bring me home. As a kid, I like all things associated with ice and peanuts. That’s how I started to fall in love with ais kacang until now.

The colourful presentation of the ais kacang mostly are derived from the ingredients used such as grass jelly (black), cendol (green), sweet cream corn (yellow), red bean/kidney bean (maroon), jellies (red, yellow, green), sago(translucent white), peanuts (beige), red syrup (pinkish red) and gula melaka (brown). As the ingredients varies from one stall to another, some people also add in attap chee or palm fruit, nata de coco (white), fruits, chocolate syrup and Sarsaparilla (Sarsi) syrup. According to floggers from Penang , Jian and Durianberry, you won’t find any ais kacang with gula melaka in Penang as most ais kacang vendors there are using the Sarsaparilla syrup and red syrup.

My favourite version of ais kacang would be the one laden with gula melaka and topped with one scoop of ice cream on it. It’s a bliss to savour it on a hot day.

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Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country? Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it. Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE. Tag Mode: You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.